Movie Review - Chocolat (2000 - United States)
A delight in every way!
This movie is beautiful, charming and a delight to the senses. It tells a magical story about the transformational potential of creativity, passion and sensual awareness.
Free spirit Vivienne (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) blow into a tiny French village tightly controlled by an emotionally repressed and repressive mayor on a "fickle wind" and immediately begin breaking rules.
Watch the trailer:
Life--and love--win against repression and fear.
The status quo fights against change, and the visionary outsiders (Binoche and Johnny Depp as the sexy-beyond-words gypsy, Roux), create beauty and love as effortlessly as breathing in and out.
It is lovingly shot, with a rich, textural canvas that is built from the everyday objects of the village--stone, plaster, a river--and the innovations Vivienne adds--the silken seduction of chocolate, the heat of chili, and the extraordinary sculpture she builds from both.
Highly recommended.
Copyright © Roberta Lee 2012. All rights reserved.
(I am an artist and the author of the Suburban Sprawl series of novels as well as two nonfiction books. Find out more about my work at RobertaLeeArt.com.)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
PG-13, 2 hr. 1 min.
Directed By: Lasse Hallström
Written By: Robert Nelson Jacobs
In Theaters: Dec 15, 2000
On DVD: Aug 7, 2001
Box Office:$71.3M
Miramax
Cast:
Juliette Binoche - Vianne Rocher
Lena Olin - Josephine Muscat
Johnny Depp - Roux
Judi Dench - Armande Voizin
Alfred Molina - Comte de Reynaud
Peter Stormare - Serge Muscat
Carrie-Anne Moss - Caroline Clairmont
Leslie Caron - Madame Audel